Voted hawt as this is a good price for this game but almost all reviewers say the same:

Gamespot

As you make your way across airships and through crystal caverns, the journey's narrow focus will be almost as striking as the pretty environments. Some games in the series have been markedly linear, but Final Fantasy XIII is even more conspicuous in this regard than its predecessors. While there are some exceptions, such as in the previously mentioned primeval grassland, you are generally moving in one direction: forward. If you feel outmatched in battle, you can backtrack to take advantage of respawning enemies and grow a bit stronger before moving on, but you'll rarely need to do so. The linearity is even more pronounced because the walkways and corridors you follow are usually rather narrow, and there are few extraneous tasks to provide variety--no minigames to complete, no puzzles to solve, and aside from a few key moments, no populated towns to investigate.

Seems like all of the cool and quirky elements of Final Fantasy have gone! Can anyone who has played this themselves comment please?:?

Voted hawt as this is a good price for this game but almost all reviewers say the same:

Seems like all of the cool and quirky elements of Final Fantasy have gone! Can anyone who has played this themselves comment please?:?

I have played this for around 50 hours and I found it to be a good change from all these shooter-like games. The combat system is among the best in the series, graphics and the soundtrack (bar the 3 minute Leona Lewis bit in the whole game) are top-notch. The game really opens up at around the 20-25 hour mark when there is a vast area to explore and the chance to complete some optional missions for useful accessories. The weapon upgrade system is fun and fairly complex but the levelling up system whereby you learn new abilities and increase your stats is incredibly linear and very disappointing...it's essentially a very dumbed-down version of the excellent sphere grid system from FFX. The game shares quite a few similarities with FFX such as its linearity which can at times get on your nerves as some maps are straight like a shoe lace and if you are used to games like Fallout 3 and Oblivion, you will find it especially linear. Notably, unlike FFX, there are very few towns and villages to explore in FFXIII which makes the world it is set in feel a bit lifeless.

The linear nature of the game does allow Square Enix to tightly control the narrative but the story, though well told and suitably weird and confusing for the FF series, is a bit lacklustre and dull...it lacks the emotionally charged drama of FFX or FFVII and doesn't have any equivalent of those memorable moments in earlier FF games such as Aerith dying or Tidus dissipating. Having said that, the fantastic visuals may leave your mouth hanging open and you might find yourself wowed by how well polished everything is.

One thing I like about the game is that you are not forced to grind for levelling up...you can grind as much or little as you like depending on your ambitions within the game.

Overall, I think it's easily worth a buy at this price. The linearity doesn't hold it back too much and the whole package is a fun experience. The main storyline itself should take around 60 hours to complete and if you plan to do the sidequests and go for the platinum, expect it to take 100+ hours.

I have played this for around 50 hours and I found it to be a good change from all these shooter-like games. The combat system is among the best in the series, graphics and the soundtrack (bar the 3 minute Leona Lewis bit in the whole game) are top-notch. The game really opens up at around the 20-25 hour mark when there is a vast area to explore and the chance to complete some optional missions for useful accessories. The weapon upgrade system is fun and fairly complex but the levelling up system whereby you learn new abilities and increase your stats is incredibly linear and very disappointing...it's essentially a very dumbed-down version of the excellent sphere grid system from FFX. The game shares quite a few similarities with FFX such as its linearity which can at times get on your nerves as some maps are straight like a shoe lace and if you are used to games like Fallout 3 and Oblivion, you will find it especially linear. Notably, unlike FFX, there are very few towns and villages to explore in FFXIII which makes the world it is set in feel a bit lifeless.

The linear nature of the game does allow Square Enix to tightly control the narrative but the story, though well told and suitably weird and confusing for the FF series, is a bit lacklustre and dull...it lacks the emotionally charged drama of FFX or FFVII and doesn't have any equivalent of those memorable moments in earlier FF games such as Aerith dying or Tidus dissipating. Having said that, the fantastic visuals may leave your mouth hanging open and you might find yourself wowed by how well polished everything is.

One thing I like about the game is that you are not forced to grind for levelling up...you can grind as much or little as you like depending on your ambitions within the game.

Overall, I think it's easily worth a buy at this price. The linearity doesn't hold it back too much and the whole package is a fun experience. The main storyline itself should take around 60 hours to complete and if you plan to do the sidequests and go for the platinum, expect it to take 100+ hours.

Cheers for the detailed review. Its probably worth the money but I am yet to finish FF X and even start FFVIII so I may hold off and play through these first. Got Zelda Wind Waker to play too!

I brought the game simply because it was the next Final fantasy. Before I buy another FF game, i'm going to want a demo first. If you haven't played it, check out Lost Oddessy which was by the person behind the Final Fantasy Series. It's miles better than this crap.

I think the combat is great, it's very strategic. You constantly have to switch fighting style to defend yourself and also bring up the enemy's chain metre as quickly as possible to do more damage and kill them quickly to get more xp and also to prevent yourself from dying as the game can be quite challenging for once in the series' life since 6. This means that there's actually a strategy and a lot to do, especially in boss battles. In previous Final Fantasy Games you could just mash x to fight, occasionally healing or using magic and in 12 you could just sit back and do nothing pretty much but they drastically altered the combat in this one to get you involved without changing it from an RPG to an action game.

I preordered this at launch and hated it, probably the worst game I have bought this year. I suppose it all depends on your tastes though.

The linearity just drove me insane and I wasn't willing to invest 25 hours of my life waiting for it to open up. Plus everytime either Hope or Vanille said anything I just wanted to punch them in the face.

In my opinion Lost Odyssey is very mediocre in graphics, story and gameplay and takes forever to get anywhere. You could throw the same last accusation at FF13 but in Lost Odyssey you either have to run around empty areas getting lost or grind through areas with too many fights. And you will have to grind a lot. The fact that it's so mediocre is even more torture than it being bad because you think it might get better but in the end I cut my losses and gave up. It's a very very old-school RPG and you might love that but I don't anymore. I paid £5 for LO and £5 for Blue Dragon and couldn't stomach either one of them, I hope you like it better.

In my opinion Lost Odyssey is very mediocre in graphics, story and gameplay and takes forever to get anywhere. You could throw the same last accusation at FF13 but in Lost Odyssey you either have to run around empty areas getting lost or grind through areas with too many fights. And you will have to grind a lot. The fact that it's so mediocre is even more torture than it being bad because you think it might get better but in the end I cut my losses and gave up. It's a very very old-school RPG and you might love that but I don't anymore. I paid £5 for LO and £5 for Blue Dragon and couldn't stomach either one of them, I hope you like it better.

Fair play, appreciate your comments. Both sound imperfect but at the end of the day I'm more willing to take a punt on a £5 game over a £20 game.

Blue Dragon was on the wrong console, never tried it and not going to. I'm a 'mature' gamer, to me it should have been a Wii game.

The graphics in Lost Odyssey are far better than those of FF13 on the XBOX 360. I haven't tried FF13 on the PS3 but from what I gather the 360 runs in a lower resolution. The gameplay is fine. The FMW in quality isn't quite upto Square's standards, and there's less of it. They use the ingame engine much more.

It's also a lot more 'mature' than FF13 which is both a good thing and a bad thing, someone younger may find it slightly boring. It's like it been aimed at those adults who orginally brought FF VI/VII/VIII and inherits all of the problems with those such as the random encounters, but this didn't stop FF VII/ VIII from being great games. But the plot, story, characters, voice acting are all top notch.

With FF13, Square have just changed the formula to much. When people are critical of FF13, others respond with "you have to give it 11 hours until it gets going". You should never have to give any game 11 hours before it starts to get good. It's style over substance.

The real difference between FF13 and LO is the hype. People have high expectations of Square, and for a game which was in development for 6 years it just doesn't hit the mark. LO on the other hand slipped under the rader, which is why it can be picked up so easily.

Blue Dragon was on the wrong console, never tried it and not going to. I'm a 'mature' gamer, to me it should have been a Wii game.

The graphics in Lost Odyssey are far better than those of FF13 on the XBOX 360. I haven't tried FF13 on the PS3 but from what I gather the 360 runs in a lower resolution. The gameplay is fine. The FMW in quality isn't quite upto Square's standards, and there's less of it. They use the ingame engine much more.

It's also a lot more 'mature' than FF13 which is both a good thing and a bad thing, someone younger may find it slightly boring. It's like it been aimed at those adults who orginally brought FF VI/VII/VIII and inherits all of the problems with those such as the random encounters, but this didn't stop FF VII/ VIII from being great games. But the plot, story, characters, voice acting are all top notch.

With FF13, Square have just changed the formula to much. When people are critical of FF13, others respond with "you have to give it 11 hours until it gets going". You should never have to give any game 11 hours before it starts to get good. It's style over substance.

The real difference between FF13 and LO is the hype. People have high expectations of Square, and for a game which was in development for 6 years it just doesn't hit the mark. LO on the other hand slipped under the rader, which is why it can be picked up so easily.

This is the impression that I got from reading the reviews. All of the LO reviews slate it for being "old school" and not standing up to the likes of Fallout and Mass Effect, but I get the impression that if LO was FFXIII it would have received more favourable reviews. I picked up LO for a fiver delivered so this is a hot deal for me at least.

If you're going on Edge reviews, Blue Dragon got a 6 so they liked it better than FFXIII ;) You should try the demo on 360 marketplace, you might be suprised. It's an oldschool rpg just like Lost Odyssey but has graphics like Dragon Quest because they're by the Dragonball artist. I just didn't like it because I've had enough of that type of RPG, just like I really enjoyed FF7, 8 and 9 even 10 back in the day but I don't think I could be bothered now with constant battles, grinding and Attack/Defend/Magic/Item. I think in that respect FF13 is trying to cater to people like me. I gave both LO and FF13 about 8 hours and not having to grind and not running around aimlessly made it less of a struggle to continue with FF13 and I was entertained by the graphics and the music anyway and now I'm really glad I did.

bluespace77

Blue Dragon was on the wrong console, never tried it and not going to. I'm a 'mature' gamer, to me it should have been a Wii game.

Great deal, Thanks OP. I ordered and received mine yesterday...........BUT...

I have been playing for 3 hours so far and it just totally let me down. Such an awful game, that im gona trade this in tomorrow first thing. Three hours and no character depth, no engaging storyline, the controls and camera suck, in game graphics suck (cut scenes are awesome though), repetitive battle sequences, lousy cut scene acting/voice over etc etc.

The game starts with some sort of war but not knowing why, who and when they are fighting, it just left me not caring about anything in the game. Boring Boring Boring. lol i cant be more blunt then that... sorry guys.

Great deal, Thanks OP. I ordered and received mine yesterday...........BUT...

I have been playing for 3 hours so far and it just totally let me down. Such an awful game, that im gona trade this in tomorrow first thing. Three hours and no character depth, no engaging storyline, the controls and camera suck, in game graphics suck (cut scenes are awesome though), repetitive battle sequences, lousy cut scene acting/voice over etc etc.

The game starts with some sort of war but not knowing why, who and when they are fighting, it just left me not caring about anything in the game. Boring Boring Boring. lol i cant be more blunt then that... sorry guys.

Try sticking with it, not played it myself but the consensus is it gets better. Or if you have an Xbox 360 try Lost Odyssey, from the guy who made earlier games in the FF series. I've got it and so far its pretty awesome, very similar to Final Fantasy. I seriously considered writing over the title on the box as I;d probably have played it even more if it were and actual FF game, its kind of why it didnt sell too well which is a shame as its ace. Can be picked up off eBay for a fiver.